Shoping Bag Tote Review (CLOSED)

A Little About Bags By G
So how do you “do what you can” to help the environment, without having to live in a hut without plumbing, or wear only organic hemp underwear? Use cloth shopping bags. They’re easy – and green.

Each bag holds about the same as a plastic shopping bag. They’re durable, washable, and fold up small to fit in a purse or pocket. And they’re personal: choose a bag that suits your fancy, whether that be flowers or dogs or angels or camouflage with skulls.

They also make great gifts: wedding showers, teacher gifts, birthdays, client thank-yous, office gifts at holidays and retirements, etc. Or they can be used to wrap presents, making for a double gift.

ARTIST STATEMENT:
I’ve been sewing for almost 40 years – starting off with my mom teaching me to stitch a pillow together by hand. I graduated to sewing garments and finally have settled mostly on quilting, though I dabble in all kinds of crafts. As my husband says, I “cut fabric up into little pieces, only to sew it all back together again.” I LOVE fabric, but this addiction has left me with a treasure trove of leftovers I wanted to put to good use. Combining my overflowing stash with a growing environmental awareness, I made my first cloth shopping bags and was gratified with their usefulness and the admiring comments I received while in grocery store check-out lines. Now I make them for eco-chic people who want to lead a greener and more stylish life.

I have this quotation on the back of my business cards: “It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little – do what you can” (paraphrased from Sydney Smith). I often joke with people that I don’t want them to wear organic hemp underwear or live in a hut without plumbing – just use a fun bag while shopping and they’ll make a difference. The bags are practical, durable, washable, and fold up small to fit in a purse or pocket – a nice alternative to very useful and durable but bulky canvas bags. And they’re personal – customers can choose a bag that suits their fancy, whether that be tropical scenes or motorcycles or ethnic prints or cute kitty cats. Some fabrics are leftovers from quilting or sewing projects, some I buy because they catch my eye, and some are from drapes, bed linens, or clothing I purchase from thrift stores. I often look at a second-hand dress and, instead of trying it on, I’ll start calculating how many bags I can get out of it.

I consider myself a very lucky person because I get to combine many of my passions in my work: personally caring for the environment now and into the future, communicating my enthusiasm for an earth-friendly lifestyle to others, exploring colors and textures and forms in fabrics, and being creative. My cloth shopping bags are a combination of all these passions, resulting in a practical and stylish product that makes customers feel good and look good.

On a dog-related note, my hubby and I have a 12-year-old dog named Tuffy, a smallish mix of wire-haired dachshund and cairn terrier. He’s a big goof, makes us smile always, and provides unconditional love. And we’ve just added 4 baby chicks to our family mix, hopefully NOT the beginning of a menagerie!
The Review:
We were sent a cute Shopping Bag in a dog motif. These bags are well made from fun fabric and hold a lot of items. In fact the weekend that we received the bag I used it to put a lot of paperwork and odds and ends for my dad to take back to my mom. Since he had come down to take care of something and so instead of sending it via mail he took it back in this cute Shopping Bag. I guess I will have to wait until I visit next or they come down to get our bag back but it did allow us to see that it would hold up when put to the usefulness test. Though I wish I had it now because it is something that would fold up easily to fit into my glove compartment that way I always have it in the car when I go to the store since I am always forgetting the Totes I have. I took a picture of it all loaded up I couldn’t get the handles to stay up on their own for the picture but this is it. The best way to describe what these bags look like is a t-shirt with the bottom sewn shut.

Since I contacted Bags By G about a possible Review and Giveaway she has updated her selection which includes a lot more pet design fabric. She has some really darling fabrics to choose from at a really great price point and even has a Special on three bags because lets face it most of the time when we go to the store here in the US it is not just for one bag of Groceries it is for at least a weeks worth of things we need. She also sells Produce Bags so that you don’t have to have all those plastic bags with produce inside your cloth bag.

(CLOSED)

The Giveaway:
Winner will receive their choice of 1 Shopping Bag ($7 value).

Mandatory: Visit http://www.etsy.com/shop/bagsbyg and tell us which one you would choose if you are the winner.

• Follow us with Google Friend Connect
• Become a facebook fan of Two Little Cavaliers 
• Heart bagsbyg on Etsy
• Sign up for our email updates via feedburner at the top of the page
• Blog about this giveaway with a link back to this post as well as a link to Bags By G on Etsy. (3 entries)
• Tweet about this giveaway “Win a Cloth Shopping Bag from Bagsbyg Etsy Store on www.twolittlecavaliers.blogspot.com @felissahadas ends 5/11″ (once per day)
• Post on your facebook wall “Win a Cloth Shopping Bag for the Eco-Chic from bagsbyg Etsy Store with a link back to this post” (3 Entries)
• Place an order and tell her we sent you! (5 entries)
• Remember to give yourselves the extra entries for each giveaway if you  blogged about our event or if you signed up for our feedburner email early.

In order to write this review and giveaway we were sent a sample of her work in the form of  a Cloth Shopping Bag. We did not receive any monetary or other compensation to create this blog post. Our opinion is completely our own and was not swayed in any fashion. This giveaway will be open until May 11th at 11:30pm Eastern Time.